Headlines:
- Dollar picks up some steam as risk stutters on the day
- Watch out for USD buying into month-end - Citi
- Japan PM Kishida: No discomfort over Ueda's remarks earlier today
- ECB's Nagel: Cannot rule out further significant rate hikes after March
- Germany Q4 final GDP -0.4% vs -0.2% q/q prelim
- Germany GfK March consumer sentiment -30.5 vs -30.4 expected
- France February consumer confidence 82 vs 80 expected
Markets:
- USD leads, AUD lags on the day
- European equities lower; S&P 500 futures down 0.6%
- US 10-year yields up 2.9 bps to 3.9101%
- Gold down 0.4% to $1,815.86
- WTI crude up 0.6% to $76.08
- Bitcoin up 0.1% to $23,909
There weren't any major headlines on the session as markets continued to figure things out, this time with the dollar running higher and looking to threaten a couple of key technical breaks. The move comes against a backdrop of risk sentiment steadily softening through the session as Treasury yields nudge a little higher on the day.
European indices opened higher but saw gains slowly dissipate and are now trading in the red, with US futures trading from being a touch lower to be down by around 0.6% to 0.9% now.
As such, the dollar is making some modest headway with USD/JPY racing up from 135.80 to its highest levels in a little over two months at 135.65. EUR/USD also steadily dropped from 1.0600 to 1.0570 with GBP/USD nudging lower from 1.2015 to 1.1975 on the session.
With risk sentiment slumping, commodity currencies are the ones suffering with AUD/USD falling to its lowest levels in seven weeks in a drop from 0.6800 to 0.6755 currently. The pair is under quite a bit of scrutiny now as key technical support levels are breaking. Meanwhile, NZD/USD is down 0.7% as well to 0.6180 as price runs into a confluence of its 100 and 200-day moving averages at 0.6182-85 at the moment.
It's all shaping up to be a potential break higher for the dollar ahead of the weekend, with Citi arguing for dollar buying into month-end as well. That will also be a factor worth considering over the next few sessions.
